The shooting of Walter Scott (who was unarmed) has been dominating the news these past few weeks. Scott, who ran away from police officer Michael Slager after a routine traffic stop, was shot in the back and pronounced dead shortly thereafter. Unlike similar cases where a cop ...more
Google Calendar is a cornerstone of the Google Suite, perhaps second only to Gmail itself. Whereas email is constantly plagued by phishing attacks, as of yet, the calendar is a relatively untapped social engineering attack vector. But it's relatively easy for an attacker to in ...more
Many apps and services that are available for Android can only work if they have access to your Google account. While you're setting up one of these apps, you'll see a popup that says something like "This app would like to access your Google account," and the options are "Acce ...more
We've already shown you how to free up internal space on your iPhone, and now it's time to tackle another problematic storage issue—your iCloud account. Having an iCloud account is great for keeping backups of your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, and it's also handy for freeing ...more
People who know that I am a professional hacker often ask me what they can do to make their computers and personal information safe from people like me. The answer, of course, is that nothing will make you completely safe, but there are a number of measures any computer user c ...more
Hashtags are the backbone of Instagram. They connect photos from users all around the world and give visibility to users who don't have many followers. Now, Instagram has added more functionality to this indispensable tool, and this new feature lets you follow hashtags in your ...more
IFTTT is an application that allows you to automate certain tasks on your iPhone or Android. It can communicate with a myriad of apps and services on your phone by creating applets that perform actions automatically — actions you'd normally have to do manually. Finding those a ...more
If you work with multiple email addresses, you need an app that can organize and declutter your day-to-day messages. Outlook is a great choice, but if you only have one account attached, it somewhat defeats the purpose. Lucky for you, adding additional email accounts is both q ...more
As we aim for a wireless world, technology's reliance on cloud computing services is becoming more apparent every day. As 5G begins rolling out later this year and network communications become even faster and more reliable, so grows our dependency on the services offered in t ...more
One of the most popular things to do on Snapchat is to earn a Snapstreak. This occurs when you and one other friend have sent snaps (not chatted) to each other within 24 hours for at least three consecutive days. One you've passed the three-day mark, then you and your friend w ...more
We've all seen the login pages that allow you to log in to third-party accounts using your credentials from Facebook, Google, or Twitter. It saves you the trouble of creating another account and remembering more passwords — but it can also become a privacy and security issue, ...more
Windows has always had an "Administrator" account that allowed you to install programs and manage system files with elevated privileges. The difference between this account and a regular user account with administrator access was that you never got bothered by annoying User Ac ...more
Your favorite instant messaging service might not be your friend's preferred choice of communicating, and your sibling might prefer yet another. So when they send you messages via different apps, it's like having one address but multiple mailboxes on a single porch. To fix th ...more
Snapchat is like that very attractive girl at the bar that has one too many shots and ends up slobbering on the bouncer as she gets led out. Of course she can still recover since she is hot, but you only get so many chances before you just become a complete failure. And that's ...more
It's never fun when you install an app and then proceed to be bombarded with constant notifications. The SoundCloud app, while great in other regards, tends to have a bit of an issue on this front. So it's only fair that I share with you how to turn off every single one of th ...more
Contacts on your phone can be messy. Keeping all of those numbers, emails, and addresses organized takes time and, even then, they still may not be be as accessible as you want them to be. Drupe, an application currently in beta for Android, drastically improves the native wa ...more
Whether you're on the john or sitting quietly on the bus to work, there's always time for a little video. And thanks to my favorite high school procrastination site, I'm going to be turning that little into a lot. StumbleUpon recently acquired a sleek new Android app that wan ...more
Keeping your friends up to date is one of the reasons chat apps exist in the first place, but sometimes we're not available to respond to every message or to let all of our contacts know what we're up to. That's where status updates come in handy, and the feature has finally f ...more
Every Galaxy S20 sold in the US — even the S20+ and S20 Ultra — simply can't be rooted. With the bootloader permanently locked, you miss out on the world of rooting and the customization it opens up, but modifications are still possible. Thanks to some Samsung-developed apps ...more
Apple's Wallet app lets you store boarding passes, concert tickets, gym memberships, vaccination cards, movie stubs, rewards cards, insurance info, student IDs, and more in one place on your iPhone, and you just double-click the Home or Side button to access them. Unfortunatel ...more
Flight disruptions can cost billions of dollars, but most modern commercial flights rely on air traffic control systems that harbor serious vulnerabilities. The Federal Aviation Administration uses an infrastructure called NextGen, which relies on Automatic Dependent Surveilla ...more
In the realm of internet security, it's becoming clear that augmented reality is not immune to the increasing wave data breaches plaguing users. On Friday, furniture retailer Houzz, an early adopter of ARKit, revealed details of a data breach that occurred in December 2018. ...more
In an ongoing effort to improve its services and become more accessible to users from all regions, Facebook has released a streamlined version of its social media app. Though the leaner Facebook Lite is only officially available in Turkey for now, there's a simple workaround y ...more
If you're an Android user, Google probably has almost your entire digital life stored on its servers. Family pictures are backed up on Google Photos, your e-book library resides with Google Play Books, videos are on YouTube, chat logs in Gmail and Hangouts, starred places and ...more
Personal data is a hot topic right now, and for good reason. Never before has the public been so on edge about how companies use their information. Services like Facebook and Google now allow you to download all of the data each has on file. Soon, you'll be able to see exactly ...more
So, your grandmother finally wants to ditch her flip phone for a shiny new smartphone? Congratulations. But helping her get used to her new device, even when it's an iPhone, is no small task. Grandma mastered checking her email in late-2012 and just recently learned there's a ...more
Your display name in ProtonMail is what email recipients will see when they first receive your message in ProtonMail, Gmail, or another email provider. You can choose this name when you first set up your ProtonMail account, but it can also be set up after the fact if you skipp ...more
Love him or hate him, we all know President Trump has a strong presence on Twitter. Whether it's 3 pm or 3 am, the president is probably tweeting. His frequent Twitter habits are often discussed by the media, and they've especially caught the attention of lawyers at Columbia U ...more
Each day, we read about another security breach somewhere in our digital world. It has become so commonplace that we hardly react anymore. Target, J.P. Morgan, iCloud, Home Depot, and the list goes on and on. Those are just the big ones that get reported in the news. Millions ...more
Facebook's shadiness when it comes to user privacy has never been much of a secret. The Cambridge Analytica scandal, however, has thrown the company and its practices into the limelight, with users taking their data more seriously than ever. If you're one of those users, you m ...more
Syncing your Google and Facebook friends to your smartphone gets your contacts list up-to-date quickly, so you'll never have a problem finding someone's number. But, there's always a negative side to things. In this case, you'll not only get contacts with phone digits, you'll ...more
What if you went to an art installation at one of the coolest venues in New York that you could then take with you anywhere in the world? That's exactly what's in play with a new Instagram filter that creates a kind of portal into an '80s-style light show anywhere you travel. ...more
Twitter's official iOS app is adequate if you're not much of a tweeter, but if you are, there's a lot of useful features that are missing. Luckily, there are plenty of free Twitter clients available that you can use on your iPhone. These third-party apps have features such as ...more
Netflix currently lets parents block content based on maturity rating, but it isn't a perfect system. Not all titles rated PG-13 are equal, for instance. That's why it's good news that Netflix is adding more controls for parents, by allowing account holders to bar individual m ...more
Using the Mail app to log in and sync to email services such as Gmail and Outlook is incredibly easy to accomplish on the iPhone thanks to the intuitive nature of its operating system. This is still evident with iOS 11, and though the process differs slightly from its predeces ...more
There's definitely a lot of new things to get used to in iOS 6, with over 200 added features, but which ones stand out about the rest? Well, it all depends on what device you're using. Some features will only work on newer models, but most of the hidden features are accessible ...more
Facebook recently implemented "Vanish Mode" into Messenger and Instagram, which lets you have an end-to-end encrypted conversation in a chat that will disappear as soon as you leave the thread. As cool as it sounds, it's easy to enable accidentally, and a friend could force yo ...more
A lot of people still trust their web browsers to remember every online account password for them. If you're one of those users, you need to adopt a more secure way of managing passwords, because browser-stored passwords are hacker gold mines. With a USB Rubber Ducky and physi ...more
A Norwegian carrier's launch of a pilotless container ship next year could lead the way to a new era in sea transportation and shipping if successful. Norway-based Yara International ASA, a self-touted "Tesla of the seas," claims the eletric-powered vessel will be the world's ...more
Microsoft's HoloLens comes with helpful features for capturing video and photos, but sharing whatever you record isn't as straightforward as you might expect. So here are the many ways to get your media off the device to share with the world. Step 1: Take a Picture or Record ...more
What's your Twitter handle worth? If it's considered "desirable" (aka short and simple), it'll get you around 100 bucks, or, if you prefer, the affections of a teenage girl. A user with the handle @blanket found out the hard way that Twitter's security is atrocious when his a ...more
A few days ago, Russian hacker Alexy Borodin found a way to get free in-app purchases on an iPhone or iPad. In-app purchases include things like items and power-ups for iOS games, as well as subscriptions and "premium" memberships for certain apps. The method is novel, not fo ...more
Thanks to recent reports, we now know third-party apps have a lot more access to our Gmail than we may have initially thought. In fact, these third-party apps have the ability to read our emails, not because these companies are necessarily shady, but because we agreed to it. L ...more
With email, one size does not typically fit all. You have multiple email accounts, each for different purposes and with varying levels of importance, so it only makes sense to customize the way your phone alerts you to each account's incoming emails. Luckily, Outlook allows yo ...more
Typing out thirty hashtags on Instagram is always such an annoying process. Figuring out the best hashtags to use to get more likes is also tricky. You can't just keep copying and pasting the same hashtags on every post — that's like attacking the same tribe every time. You go ...more
The first time a friend or family member asks if they can borrow your phone or tablet, you probably just hand it over without a second thought. But the second, third, and fourth times? Now it's starting to become a habit, and something probably needs to be done about it. Luck ...more
Before you sell or give away an old iPhone, Find My iPhone, which works in conjunction with Activation Lock (Apple's anti-theft system) needs to be deactivated from your iCloud account. This also applies if you've lost your passcode and are locked out of the device, if you're ...more
If you didn't get the memo, passwords aren't enough protection for your online accounts. Even a long and complex password offers only one line of defense which can falter. Two-factor authentication adds an additional layer, bolsters your defense, and decreases the risk of your ...more
What you see when you open the Play Store is completely dependent on your country settings. Search results and top charts are specific to each region and there are lots of popular apps and games that simply won't show up unless your Play Store country matches up. Until recent ...more
One thing that makes Apple great is the connectivity between its products. Many tasks you do on an iPhone can be switched over to a Mac or iPad quickly and easily. The Notes app is no exception to this advantage, but you need to make sure you're set up so that your notes sync ...more
A Seattle development team is putting the "ARRRR" in AR with the maiden voyage of Captain Blimey, an augmented reality game for iOS and Android devices that puts a pirate premise on Pokémon GO. Instead of stalking make-believe monsters, players in Captain Blimey hunt for trea ...more
If you purchased something from iTunes, the iOS App Store, iBooks Store, Apple TV App Store, or the Mac App Store and it doesn't work, didn't download, is buggy, or wasn't what you thought it was, you can get a full refund from Apple—you just have to know how to ask. Whatever ...more
'Tis the season... for cheap (and free!) video games. THQ's Humble Bundle lets you get 7 games for any price you want, and now they're making it even better by offering fans a free Steam copy of Metro 2033 just for liking Metro on Facebook, which is gearing up for the latest M ...more
It always helps to be prepared for the worst. This applies to our phones now more than ever, as we depend on them to be our record keepers for text messages from friends, family, and coworkers. If you ever lose or severely damage your phone, having a backup of your precious te ...more
Now that Fyre Festival co-founder Billy McFarland is charged with fraud, this is the perfect time to list off those top 15 influencers who promoted tickets to the disastrous event to their loyal followers, right? Maybe. It would be good to know for the future, and also as a w ...more
Snapchat parent company Snap credits its popular augmented reality experiences and its flourishing Lens Studio creator community to its user growth throughout the year. So it makes sense that the company would add some new tools to Lens Studio as 2019 enters the home stretch ...more
Users on Instagram have taken the app's new "Questions" sticker and run with it — it's tough to find a story in your feed that doesn't proudly sport "Ask me a question." However, it appears there's some confusion when it comes to the anonymity of your answers to these question ...more
Google, Amazon, and Facebook are always listening. But what's worse? Hackers are listening, too. Windows PCs are particularly vulnerable, but with a few simple commands, a remote attacker can even take over the microphone on someone's Mac computer, streaming audio and listenin ...more
The new iOS 11 was just released by Apple, and you can install it right now. Overall, it's got some great features, but how does it fare battery-wise on your iPhone? And how can you increase daily battery life for more juice and less charging every day? No matter the iOS vers ...more
Instagram Stories is one of the most flexible ways to share creative and original content with your followers. It allows you to alter text, markup images, and add cool graphics and stickers, along with other fun ways of expressing yourself. The way you can use Stories goes be ...more